1. Field
The present invention relates to a rechargeable battery, and more particularly to a rechargeable battery configured to prevent or substantially prevent explosion resulting from overheating, and having a reduced manufacturing cost.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rechargeable battery can be repeatedly charged and discharged, unlike a primary battery which cannot be recharged. A low-capacity rechargeable battery is used for portable small-sized electronic devices, such as mobile phones, notebook computers, and camcorders. A large-capacity battery is widely used as a power source for driving motors, such as for hybrid vehicles.
One type of rechargeable battery is a rechargeable battery using a pouch method of coating polypropylene on an aluminum material in order to close and seal the outside of a generation element. However, the pouch method used by the rechargeable battery has a limit to the molding of the external shape of a pouch because of deformation of aluminum and polypropylene. Accordingly, it is difficult to form a pouch with a thickness of 6 to 7 mm or more. Further, the aluminum material is problematic in that the manufacturing cost is increased because the price of aluminum is relatively high. The aluminum material is also problematic in that it has a danger of explosion when abnormal overheating occurs within a rechargeable battery.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.